Early Days In Texas 

and Rains County 



BY W. O. HEBISON 



I 



Early Days In Texas 
and Rains County 



BY W. O. HEBISON 

EMORY, TEXAS 



Copyright Applied For. 



1917. 



LEADER PRINT. EMORY. TEXAS. 



DEC -7 1917 



Av^ I 



Dedicatory Preface. 



A history of the early settlement of Texas and Rains 
County, could it have been written as things happened would 
be a story full of fascination and interest for the old and 
young of this, or any other generation that may come, for it 
would be a story of deeds of heroism, of stern persistence, 
of deprivation of the comforts of life, of a struggle that 
finally resulted in the establishment of homes in the wilder- 
ness of what is now our great State and County. 

A large majority of the first settlers were descendants 
of men who had made for our country a history showing that 
they had a strong sense of justice and of individual liberty, 
for which they unyieldingly contended, regardless of con- 
sequences. 

After we have passed the meridian of life and are facing 
the sunset, we are wont to take a retrospective view of our 
lives and tell how it all happened. And as the books, public 
prints and files of newpapers of the present must be relied 
upon by future historians for data to aid them in giving a 
correct account of the past, it behooves us to give as cor- 
rectly as possible the facts as nearly as we can ascertain 
them. 

With this, I dedicate this work to the pioneers— who 
suffered and toiled to pave the way for our present comforts 
of civilization — and present it to the reader for judgment. 

W. O. HEBISON. 



EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 



Then and Now. 

We are living in a new age. Within the last fifty years 
the inventive genius of man has been rampant. From his 
prolific brain have come the telephone, the electric light, the 
self-binder, the phonograph, the automojpile, the flying ma- 
chine, the linotype and wireless telegraphy. It is diflcult 
for anyone living in this modern time to realize the condi- 
tions of life here in the early times. To get some idea of 
the wonderful changes that have taken place, and note a few 
of the things that our parents and grandparents did not have 
which w^e have today, let us go back say to the eighteen 
forties. 

They did not have any canned fruits and vegetables, such 
as we are accustomed now to eating almost every day, be- 
cause there were no tin cans. Oranges, bananas and other 
tropical fruits were unknown at the little cross-roads stores 
of that day. Dinners were cooked on fire-places, as there 
were no cook stoves or ranges of any kind. The only cook- 
mg utensils known to our mothers were the hearth oven, the 
skillet and the pot. Housewives had no prepared breakfast 
foods. All the coffee had to be roasted and ground at home. 
There were no clothes wringers, nor washing machines, nor 
wire clothes lines. Neither had they refrigerators nor ice 
cream freezers. Nobody wore rubbers, because there were 
no rubber goods of any kind on the market Fireplaces 
we i*e the only means of keeping a room warm. Here and 
there a wealthy farmej* owned a wood-burning stove — a rare 
luxury. If anyone ventured out at night he carried his own 
light with him— a lantern with a candle in it. Electricity 
and gas and coal oil had not yet come into use, so the flick - 
<f^ring tallow candle was the best light they had, and thp 



-2 EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

moon was the best ilium inant a town could have at night. 
All travel was done on horseback or by stage coach. The 
ox wagon was the only means by which our fathers could 
convey their produce to the markets, but now we have the 
fast freights. Then the double team of fiery "broomtails" 
and heavy buggy or wagon bore them from place to place. 
Now the smoking automobile bears them swiftly on, leaving 
the streaky dust cloud behind. Where the long-horned cow 
roamed you find the peaceful Jersey or Heieford now. 
Letters were written with quill pens. There were no foun 
tain pens, no blotters, no typewriters. Our fathers went 
trudging after the shovel plow, now a boy is riding in ihe 
shade sometimes half asleep or whistling "Ragtime," or 
''The Girl I Left Behind Me." Often the enterprising news 
paper of that day to get the news from the great capitol of 
the United States, must needs print what occurred three 
or four months previously. Today we know the happenings 
pf the world within twenty-four hours after it occurs. 

Grandmother used to save the tallow and make the can- 
dles, or, at a little later day, fill' the lamps, clean thn chim 
neys and trim the wicks. Now she turns on the gas and 
strikes a match, or, if truly up-to-date, she eliminates the 
match and merely switches on the electric light. Who would 
exchange electric, gas, or even modern oil lamps for the 
candles moulded at home, and which furnished the fights 
for the church when the minister announced that services 
would begin "at early candle light?" 

In the old days, too, father with his sweetheart perched 
behind him on the family horse, took a little trip to church, a 
spelling match, or a social dance, now the young man tries 
to make up his mind whether Anna and Mable or Rose and 
Helen shall accompany him in his handsome automobile. 
Look back, if you please, and view our mothers and grand 
mothers carding, spinning and weaving the cloth of which 
the family clothes were made. Today we do not think of 
clothes until we need them, and then we just step into a dry 
goods store and have them fit in a few minutes and go on our 
way, rejoicing or sorrowing. 



H h:arly days in texas 

I sometimes wonder whether our parents and grand 
parents were not happier in the days when they had none of 
these modern improvements that now make living so much 
easier, but more expensive. They had good times then, and 
did not know what it was to miss the new things that we 
prize so much now. 

In early times the women were producers and the men 
had more leisure because their duties were more or less 
seasonal and were largely performed as sport or adventure. 
With the development of the country the men were given 
a larger share in the treadmill process. When manufactur 
ing came in men and women were still producers. This 
continued so long as the industry held its place in the home, 
to the (*lose of the handicraft era. 

But now changes have come in the home. The flax and 
^♦.otton are no longer there for preparation. The butter 
is churned at the creamery. The spinning has migrated to 
the factory. Oil, gas and electricity leave no room for can 
die making. There are no more sacks of driea apples and 
peaches in the attic. There is no longer leaching of ashes 
or boiling of soap to be done in the back yard. The steam 
laundry cleanses and irons for us, and fades out and wears 
out for us the garments the factories have provided. 

The electric sweeper cleans our floors, the dry cleaner 
cares for our suits and gowns. The mother no longer 
teachers her child at her knee. And yet, somehow, with all 
its^old occupations gone the home is still a busy place, and 
our women folks grown worn and tired with its burdens. 
Ill health, dyspepsia and nervous breakdowns are increas- 
ing. The crowning beauty of human life, the 80 and 90 year 
young grandmothers, the placid, wise pioneer veterans, 
glory-crowned by hardship and struggle, are visible only in 
the picture galleries of an earlier and more vigorous gen 
eration. 

What a glamour of glory the remembrance of childhood 
throw around the times and conditions of twenty-five to fifty 
years ago. Pond recollection of the old home and parental 
love and care envelope the past in a splendor that only time 



4 EAKLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

can KJve, and impel the reference to "the good old days." 
It is the care-freeness and the exuberance of youthful days 
that enshrouds the past in a halo of beauty. Thei'e is prob 
ably no one who would be willing to exchange the circuin 
stances and conditions of the present for *'the good old 
days," so far as convenience and methods of various kinds 
are concerned. It can hardly be questioned successfully 
that more substantial progress has been made in a material 
way during the last half century than a thousand years 
anterior thereto. Few men would be willing to see theii' 
wives carding, spinning and weaving cloth as their mothers 
did, or would be willing that their children should wear 
clothes made from such cloth with its coperas tint; or would 
exchange electric, gas, or even modern oil lamps for the 
candles moulded at home. 

PE'w farmers would supplant the up-to-date ginning 
equipments with the old wooden-screw gin, which turned 
out five or six bales of cotton a day. The log school houses 
fu]'nished with split-log benches and stick and dirt chim 
neys would hardly be looked upon by the child of today as a 
tit place to study. ' The harvester who uses the twentieth 
centur^^ -elf-binder would not listen a minute to the sug- 
gestions to go back to the old time "reap-hook," such as 
Ruth used in the field of Boaz four thousa^^d years ago, and 
which was in general use in this country fifty years ago and 
oven later. Women of today who do their own laundering 
would doubtless feel aggrieved had they to go back/to the 
rubbing by hand and lye soap of their grandmothers 

All these things, however, are less impressive than the 
great use and pleasure of facilities for transportation— rail- 
road trains instead of stage coaches, and automobiles in 
stead (jii^ ordinary horse-drawn vehicles, as compared with 
those of a few decades ago. Half a century ago one could not 
think of taking a trip of a thousand miles or more during a 
vacation of twp or three weeks, not only because of the time 
required, but also because of the expense. Where could one 
have gone in the early days on a railway ticket costing $40V 
The cheapness, comfort and saf<^<^v of inodern travel make it 



5 EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

possible for those in most moderate circumstances to visit 
some of the greatest scenic wonders of the world. Cer 
tainly, too, no one wants to exchange telephones for mes 
senger boys, nor wireless telegraphy for ships or carrier 
pigeons. 

Few indeed are those who would exchange the conditions 
and comfort of the present for those of the good old days , 
good though they were in many respects. 

Modes of Travel and Time. 

In that early time, when the absence of bridges, the 
badness of roads, and the primitive character of vehicular 
devises so greatly emphasized overland distances, Shreve- 
port. La., Jefferson and Marshall, Texas, were the great 
outlet and inlet of travel. The remoteness of the different 
pans of the country from each other in those days is diffi- 
cult to understand, or even fairly to imagine now. There 
were no telegraphs available, the mails were irregular, un 
certain and unsafe. The wagons, called stage coaches that 
carried them, were subject to capture and looting at the 
hands of robber bands who infested many parts of the coun> 
try, having their headquarters usually at some town where 
roads converge. So in those days the perils of the roads 
were many; the coach might overturn; the driver was always 
armed with a "blunderbus" (a short single-barreled shot- 
gun), but the traveler had to take care of himself ic case of 
attack. In those times one thought nothing of knocking a 
fellow down, and horse-whippings were every day affairs.- 
If annoyed by a stranger, you would give him your card, and, 
if he was a gentleman, he would give you satisfaction in a 
duel. 

But the Bowie knife was the weapon most in vogue, and 
it may not be interesting here to state that the greater num 
ber of these weapons were manufactured in Sheffield and 
Birmingham, England. It is said that those manufactured 
bv Bunting & Son, of Sheffield, had a blade eighteen inches 
long and was ornamented in beautiful tracery on the steej 
as * 'The Genuine Texas Toothpick." Often when an agent 



o EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

offered one for sale he would hint that it ought to brin^ him 
a dollar more than he demanded as he could assure the pur 
chaser that it had tasted blood. A writer of that day sug 
jested that members of the Texas Congress should be well 
paid for their services to compensate them for the risk they 
run of being "bowie knifed*' during debate, a custom of by 
no means rare occurrence. 

Sometimes we hear a man kicking nowadays about the 
delay of trains and mail matters. But he has forgotten the 
time when the citizens of this part of the country only re- 
ceived mail semi-occasionally —perhaps once a month, and 
when their kinfolks came to see them they had to wait s'ome 
times several weeks for the stage to arrive. And he has for- 
gotten that in the good old days a week or two was so incon 
sequential a period of time that nobody complained if the 
mail hngered that long on the way. It was all right to wait 
a month or two for a reply to an important business letter. 
Sometimes grandpa had to wait six months for his war 
news, and as for getting the returns from a Presidential 
election two months was plenty soon enough to hear who 
was the successful candidate. But everybody was happy, 
although in some respects things were a little inconvenient. 

But those were patient days. There was no need of a 
speed limit. The stage coach was looked upon with awe by 
reason of its haste, and the driver who sat upon its box and 
hit the grit at the rate of nine miles an hour was a regular 
dare-devil. Oh happy days, oh leisurely days, oh days of 
^rest and summers of sweet repose! Your like will never be 
seen again on this earth. In fifty years the minds of men 
have sped further forward than in all the ages that pre 
ceded. No more for mankind the ancient inertia nor the 
primitive state of mind. Whether for better or for worse, 
man has chosen to hurry and never again will he be content 
to sit leisurely bj and dream dreams while digestion per 
forms its perfect work on the dinner within him. 

"Man today is full of hurry, 

Full of haste and rush and worry. 

And he hasn't time to either live or die: 

If he laughs at something funny. 

He reflects that time is money 

And the fountain of his merriment goes dry." 



7 KARLY DAYS IN TEXA8 

Brevity may or may not be the "soul of wit/' but there 
is no question in regard to brevity's beinj? the soul of con 
versation nowadays. The aim of the up to-the-secoud con- 
versationalist is to cut all corners and get there in the 
shortest possible time. But in days of yore a man was polite 
under all circumstances, no matter how much time it con 
sumed. Then he would say, "My dear sir, I desire that you 
understand thorous:hly that I comprehend fully and in all 
detail the information that you are endeavoring to impart to 
tne." Now he says, "Gotcha!" 

But this is an era of short cuts and lapid processes, and 
the decay of good manners is to be ascribed to the rush and 
liurry. The leisurely dignity of the old days is practically 
unknown. It takes more time to treat with circumspection 
than it does to rush through life, but it pays to be pohte, and 
the person is imperfectly schooled who has rot learned that 
invaluable lesson. 

So the trouble with us today is that we are living too fast. 
We are all hving too fast— every one of us. It is such a rush 
tind hurry and push and scramble until one scarcely knows 
what he is about. This reminds me of what an old pioneer 
told me while he was recounting some doings of early days 
in Texas. The things that were done seemed to m« to have 
consumed a great deal of time, and when I ask him how^ peo 
pie found time for so much travel from place to place when it 
required a month or more to take a trip, that we grumble if 
it requires more than a day or two now, he said: Why, 
man, people had plenty of time then, more time than any 
thing else." The world is moving and we must keep on the 
jump to keep up with it. Nobody wants to tail the proces 
sion. If it requires working fa^ into the night, why we are 
i^oing to do it— do anything rather than get out of the going. 

Early Day Farm and Cost of Living. 

In view of the modern day high cost of living, I wish to 
recall some of the living conditions and methods used on the 
i)ld-time farm. The farm consisted of a small clearing in the 
woods, stocked with ten or fifteen cows, a yoke or two of 
oxen, about twenty sheep, an old white horse, a dozen razor 



8 EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

liiuav iiugis, and flocks of chickens, turkeys, geese and duck{>. 

Pood was plentiful and cheap. Fresh meat from the 
wild game then so abundant in the woods, and fish from the 
rivers and smaller streams that traversed the country. Hah 
a dozen hogs killed off the range each year gave plenty of 
bacon, ham, lard and salt pork. The hams and bacon were 
hung up in the smoke-house— a small log building with no 
opening except the door. A small tire produced more smoke 
than heat, but gave the hams and bacon a very delicious 
flavor. Garden vegetables were abundant. Potatoes, beets, 
cabbages, pumpkins for pies, apples— from which cider and 
vinegar were made, and also a cider champagne. There 
were plenty of chickens for roasting and pot-pies and eggs, 
turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and occasionally a 
roast goose with apple sauce. Prom the cows' milk both 
butter and cheese were made. Butter sold at the cross 
roads stores, sometimes, at 10 cents a pound, and cheese at 
5 or 6 cents; eggs at 5 cents a dozen, but often they "liter 
ally went a begging. The skins of animals was legal tender. 

Several cows were killed each year. There w^as a tan 
nerv in each community where the skins were tanned. 
Home made boots were worn instead of shoes in those days. 
It is said that to be stylish they were made too small and 
gave much trouble and pain. All the clothes were made by 
hand. The flax cut and laid down until the fiber loosened 
from the woody part was put through a heckle worked by 
hand and then spun and woven. This strong linen cloth 
was used for summer clothing, towels, etc. The seed was 
saved to make flax seed tea (a medicine), or poultice for 
bruises. The sheep furnished the wool, and some cotton 
was raisfed on the little farms. At home the wool and cotton 
V7as carded and spun into yarn, and woven on a hand loom. 
Por beds it was left white, but for clothing it was dyed any 
color desired. The house wife made dyes of logwood, in 
digo and cochineal. The white and black wool were mixed 
to produce a gray like the Confederate uniform. Caps with 
ear-flaps were of rabbit skins. There was no knitted un 
derwear, but socks and stockings were knitted at home, as 



9 EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

well as mittens. Alas! so were the carpets, the candles the 
.oap the mattresses and the chairs and tables made at h^me 
Every family made dripping iye-soap. It was caUed 
soft soap m those days. It was soft, but very strong and 
took the du-t off your hands and face very thorougWy' and 
someskm also, unless you were careful in your ab unions 
^:''1ZS'^--'^-^--^ore.^ou^i.t soap and' washing Z 

frS f^T' '''^' ^"^* ^'""P^^ i^'^'i -battling stick ' 
lye-soap and elbow grease. Store-bought soap cannot com 

'" E^errff T*':1 '''■'"'" '"^•^^ '^^ our gr'anZLe": 
Phil/ J T".^ """"^ ^"^ ash-hopper, too, and how the 
children dreaded the light nights in March, as that Zs the 
time their mothers made soap, and they had to carry water 
and pour on the old ash-hopper. This ash-hopper was made 
by the old settler securing from the forest a hollow to^he 
1 ght size to make a pig trough. Two low forks were then 
placed in the ground and the trough placed on them Tround 
this was bu.lt the frame, and long split ooards or pahn^s 
were placed in the trough, slanting on the two sides but the 
ends were boarded straight upright. After putt tag in he 
ashes, grandmother put water on them and let soak unti I 
began to dnp^ This diip was caught in a wooden trough 
and ,t,t was dense enough to bear up an egg, she brought 
he lye to boihng. Then if it was strong eno;gh to eat up a 
feather she would put the grease scraps saved during the 

ZTz;':tr '''''''' r^^ --'"^ ''^- ^^^ ^^ "' ^ 

grease and the soap was made. And grandmother always 

contLr" /. *''' """ '" ''^•^ '"°''"' ^'^'l ^'^-y^ stirred the 
contents in the pot witn a sasafras stick for good luck 

When hogs were scarce, or not to be had to make soan 
hrtkr"''''''^"^"^'^'^^*'^'*^^"'"^- -'i skinned a"d 
Ikesofp " ^«''"«>»1**-1. grandmother was ready to 

In the days of the spinning-wheel, the loom, the fat 
boiler, the ash-hopper, the dipping pot aud mold, everything 

suets for soap, she was saying them for tallow and for 



10 



BARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 



•dips •• It was the age of candle-light and the home tha 
oouM boast of "molds" instead of "dips" was the home that 
was socially conspicuous in the community 

It would be a great reduction of the high cost of living 
now Lse oldtime home economies could only be re^-ived^ 
In two or three days the housewife of that ^;-« --^^ niaU, 
enough soap and candles to supply the f^-' ^ /"^*s, 
and this from material that now is often wasted. But to e 
Vive these things and some others, such as carding and »pin 
uing, ^veaving and knitting, would be to bring about a com- 
plete change of the present day mode of living No house 
wife could be expected to card and spin and make soap and 
candles now, as she could not take the time from the thousand 
and one present day activities that make demands upon her. 
The years cannot be turned backward. The old thmgs have 
been left behind, and the face of the housewife, like the face 
of humanity in general, is turned toward the new things that 
concern us all now, and it is our duty to see to it that they 
are trulv improvements on the old. 

" 'The Old is Better." I mean to write a sermon on f his 
text sometime," said the prettiest woman in the group. We 
are all ffoing crazy nowadays over novelty-new fashions, 
new inventions, seeing new places -but I tell you the oIq 
things are half the time better. The old friends always; the 
old furniture, which is so often discarded for newer patterns 
not half so reallv good. And I love a good old dress that I 
am used to and that has become a sort of a part of me. And 
old shoes: Is therfe any thing on earth quite so comfortable 
as a pair of soft, flexible old shoes. 

Recently, after paying the monthly bill, it occurred to 
me that we were spending more for living expenses now 
than we used to spend. Today we look upon many things_as 
necessities that our parents looked upon as luxuries. We 
just simply live higher these days thar they did m the past. 
Not only is there a great difference in what folks wear, but 
the things they eat is more expensive. Either this, or we 
did not get the best when we were growing up. Time was, 
when if we got a few dishes of ice cream a year we were 



" WARLY DAYS IN TKXAfS 

contented, but now it is almost an every day affair. Now we 
_ have to have electric lights, the daily papers, the county 
paper, the religious journal, and a magazine. And we need 
them, too. We cannot well do without the telephone in these 
days, but the telephone is responsible for many expenses 
our parents knew nothing about. Its so easy to telephone 
to Che store and order anything we happen to think of -and 
the merchant manages to remind us of a few things we 
never thought about. And the women folks, God bless them 
rrftrf *''"'" forturlate enough to have a sealskin 
jacket, the husband is due to buy a new cloak every year or 
two. Our grandmothers wore the same shawl for a score of 
successive winters, and our mothers used to wear the same 

.we°r «T.r. '^'''^^ '"'''''"' ^^"^^ ^'»*«'-- A'^d if father paid 
over $7,50 for a suit of clothes for me I was prouder than a 
king, while now it costs $18 to $20 for a suit that is not a bit 

Snd morJ'fnf ''**''*"' '"T*' ^'^'^"•V- ^any families now 
spend more for amusements than its grandparents spent for 

Clothing. Of course, amusements are necessary, but not 
more necessary in our day than clothes were in grandad's 

Iheji, you remember, how you used to go bare-footed 

until It became so cold that the frozen clods cut into your 

reet, and then your father used to take you down to the village 

«toreandbuy.youapair of "brogan" shoes for $1.25, and 

they were better than we get for $4.00, even if they didn't 

ook quite so swell. " That pair of shoes had to last vou uuti! 

the green got back in the trees. Sometimes I had to make 

them last nearly two winters. But the.se days with four 

romping, growing girls, it seems as if I average four pairs a 

month-and its aggravating, too, because it does seem as if 

every one of the four demand a new pair at the same time 

i do not know whether we live any better than our pa- 
rents did for they seemed to thrive and enioy life, but we 

nol'''^"fJ'f '"""" ^"^ '"^"ries* Some of our necessities 
now would have appalled them, then. And we do not think 
about It as being extravagant until the first of the month 
when we begin trying to make the previous month's income 
<.over the expense. While we are trying it we are complain- 



12 EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

ing ot the high cost of living. Let's forget it! If we are not 
content to live as our parents lived, and must have a ]ot of 
things they never dreamed of, let's pay the bill without 
grumbling. 

If our children add as much to the cost of living as we 
have added to what it used to cost, the married man of the 
next generation can never hope to have a new suit of clothes 
He will have to keep his wedding suit to wear when his 
daughters are married. And he may have a world of trouble 
marrying them off. It is claimed that the high cost of gro- 
ceries, dress goods and cosmetics already has made many 
young men bear their heart's ills rather than fly to otihers 
that their married brethren have told them about. 

Nowadays you can hardly go into a home where there 
are not several bottles of dressings of one kind and another 
intended to make food taste better, but it was not that way 
in our grandmother's time. And there were no expensive 
canned goods used then. When one of the family was sick 
a squirrel or chicken was killed and soup was made. Now a 
can of tomatoes or peaches is bought. And when we go 
home now and ask if dinner is ready, she usually says: 
"Yes, in a minute— just as soon as I can open it up." 

Speaking of dressings to make food taste better causes 
me to remember that in my boyhood days I was visiting at 
the home of a friend who had a large family. One day for 
dinner, he brought home a bottle of tomato ketchup— the 
first one that came to his house, but as several of the children 
were at school it was decided that it should not be opened 
until supper. It seemed to me that it was the longest after 
noon we ever spent. Several times we climbed up in a. 
chair so we could see the bottle of ketchup on the highest 
shelf. Finally the family gathered at the table for supper. 
The every day red oilcloth had been replaced by the white 
one that was used on Sundays and when the minister came. 
Before the boy, who was first to the ketchup, had poured a 
particle on his plate, one of the older boys spoke up and said: 
"Now, remember, that is not gravy— you just want to take a 
little bit of it." As the bottle went around each was warned 



13 iiiARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

that he should not take too much. The one who was to re- 
ceive it last remarked several times that he did not think 
there would be any left when it got to him. 

And the matter of hotels and restaurants. In the old 
days you paid 25 cents for a room at a hotel. Now you pay 
a dollar or a dollar and a half if you are a bit extravagant. 
And if any "swell" hotel in the early days charged 50 cents 
for a meal there was a yell loud enough to be heard over in 
the next county. A quarter was the average price for a 
meal then, but a quarter will not buy more than coffee and a 
chili now. Today when you go into a restaurant the waiter 
hands you a napkin, hustles a glass of water, hands you a 
bill of fare and rearranges all the things on the table while 
you scan the menu: *" Steak 50 cents," -potatoes, any style, 
20 cents," "coffee 10 cents," and so on. If you are not very 
hungry you escape on a dollar. 

In old settler days the doctor's biU for the birth of a 
child was 1^2, Another visit or two from the doctor with his 
leather saddle bags, a few visits from neighboring house- 
wives, a little paregoric, and the crisis was passed— "mother 
and child doing well." Frequently now the mother goes to 
the Sanitarium— $25 a week for the room, $25 for a trained 
nurse; $100 instead of $2 for the doctor. When an old set- 
tler died the cost did not exceed $10. A ^ood pine coffin 
made by the neighbors, or local woodshop— no undertaker, 
no hired carriages, no dismal trappings and funeral prop- 
erties—the coffin taken to the graveyard in a farmer's 
wagon, the grave dug by the hands of neighbors, and all was 
over. 

But the old homely ways have gone and the higher- 
priced new ways have come. Today, for example, when a 
youngster makes his advent into this vale of tears he is likely 
to bankrupt his parents by being born, and if he dies the 
funeral expenses will impoverish his heirs. If your stomach 
aches you are referred from higher-priced specialist to 
higher-priced specialist and you must go to the Sanitarium 
and have trained nurses. So one had better think twice, or 
thrice, before indulging in these things. The cost of living 



14 EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

is no higher than the cost of birth or death, or stomach 
ache, its a tight, and a good one, from the cradle to the grave 
— largely because we have abandoned the simple life of our 
fathers for a life of extravagance and foolishness. 

The Old Settlers. 

The old settlers v^ho laid the foundation for our present 
prosperity were a noble class of men and women. They had 
come to this country from the older States, some to obtain 
homes, some in quest of health, and others to live easily. 
They were as a rule industrious, economical and in a true 
sense neighborly. They worked shoulder to shoulder. 
There were no privileged classes — all met on common ground 
and shared each others troubles. The latchstring always 
hung on the outside of the door to their neighbors and hos- 
pitality was only bounden by ability. They lived in rude 
huts, built of los:s. They were hardy pioneers, half 
farmer and half hunter, as game was then so abundant. 
With a roof of oak or pine boards to protect from the 
weather, they were happy and contented and produced on 
their little farms corn and wheat for bread and wool and 
cotton and flax necessary to clothe them. 

I have been requested to write concei-ning Texas' great 
men. As I wrote the first line the thought came to my mind 
that most great men owe much of their greatness to women, 
so I added women. Many citizens of Texas have been 
elevated to high positions in the State in their respective 
fields of labor, but the number is too large to enumerate 
here. But I merely mention this to raise the question, w^ho 
are great men and women? In my estimation the greatest 
men and women that Texas has produced are the men and 
women that produced Texas. Those who built our schools 
and churches and established law-abiding communities of 
peaceable citizens. The men who are law-abiding citizens 
are often greater than the men who make, or execute the 
laws. The men and women who have borne their part in 
building up a law-abiding, intelligent, moral and church 



K, EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

o^oin^- communities are the benefactors of the State, and are 
tlie truly great citizens. While the old settlers were not all 
of one mind religiously yet they were one in their desii-e lor 
a moral and religious citizenship, and they all met together 
at church services. The descendants of these early settiers 
as a rule have proven worthy of their parents and have mam- 
tained the high standard of their communities These men 
and women were great because they were peaceable, iovmg. 
neighborly. God feai'ing people. These; women were real 
mothers, rearing their children in the "nurture and admo- 
nition of the Lord." They were keepers of homes and true 
helpmaties for their husbands. They were the uncrowned 
<.| u een s " of ou r S tate . 

Sometimes I dream ot all tbe splendid nu-u 
And glorious womeM of the long ago ; 
They pass before me jn a -shadowy row 
To meet life's battles as thny met th^m then. 
From Che old days when Houston bleu and fought 
What mighty men have lived, what threat (l»n>(is don-. 
How many fair, proud ucmen has the siui 
Illumed and blessed, what wondrous deeds they wruuglil 
And still great men, brave women live today, 
And toil for all the suffering anU opprtf^sed ; 
Yet must they follow, in thn self-same wa} . 
Those who in cycles past found peace and r^sL. 

Looking back at pioneer days, I see an old settler build 
ing the house in the woods to which he is to bring the family. 
It is made of logs, and the places between the logs are tilled 
with clay. That house is crude compared with the gorgeous 
palaces of these days, but when it is completed and the family 
moves into it, filled with the spirit of home, it is a haven of 
rest— it is heaven— 

"For there, the nights were blessed with quiet sleep. 

The days were filled with happy cares ; 
And there the skies seemed evermore to keep 

A time for peace and prayers. 
There, youth and laughter, joy and hope and love 

Sang in my heart a happy song; 
Ah, me! the song is hushed forever more 

And lost the streets among. 

And now I stand and gaze with heavy heart. 

Across dear fields in longing sore; 
To where another woman, happier far. 

Looks from the low, gray door. 
Oh, little farm house, old and brown and sweet. 

I wake, when all the world's at rest, 
And dream of you, and long fur the old peace 

And the untroubled breast I" 



EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

It was in the t)ld-time home that the old-fashioned mother 
j<ot up in the early morning, made the fire and cooked break 
last, and when everything was ready she called father, and 
he 51 rose to a warm repast that fitted him for the arduous 
labors of the day. When evening came and he returned from 
the field, all he had to do was to take the harness off his 
horses and feed them. Then his supper was ready for him, 
:iil ! () and sizzling from the kitchen fire place. After supper 
all l)e had to do was sit on a bench in front of the house and 
pick the sandburs and thistles out of his feet, while mother 
milked the cows and slopped the pigs. In those days mother 
hf'iped to make the wheels go round. 

When we look back at those halcyon days and review the 
lives of the noble men and women, and recognize their hon 
esty of purpose and uprightness of soul, we can but lament 
their passing'. The old-fashioned father who gave good 
counsel and set a good example to his children was found all 
t)ver ihe land. The old-fashioned mother, whose self-sacri- 
ficing devotion covered her loved ones as with a garment, was 
to be found in every home and thronged the aisles of every 
Country church. The sweet girl of the old-time; the youth of 
great timbition— the people who unselfishly loved home a.nd 
country, and who reverenced truth and justice— all these 
were the real nobility of earth then as well as now. 

"It singetb low in every heart, 

We hear it each and all — 
A song of those who answer not, 

Howeyer we may call. 
They throng the sileiice of the breast; 

We see them as of yore — 
The kind, the true, the brave, the swett, 

Who walk with us no more. 

'Tis bard to take the burden up 

When these have laid it down ; 
They brighten all the joy of life, 

They soften every frown. 
Bur, oh ! 'tis ^ood to think of them 

When we are troubled sore ; 
Thanks be to God that such have been, ' 

Although they are no more!" 

li is a common saying now that the old-fashioned hos 
1 m!)! it y. as it existed in the old-time home, is almost a lost 



17 EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

virtue. Certain it is that the spare room and the open house 
are not such popular institutions as in the early days, and the 
latchstring does not always hang ready for the wayfarer's 
touch. Today there is a great deal of social entertaining, 
but not enough of ungrudging hospitality, as in the early 
days, to those who have no other claim than that of guest, 
and who cannot return our favors in kind. 

The early settlers of our State had their fun and pas- 
times. There are plenty of trees yet standing in Texas with 
bullets of lead in them that were shot out of old flint-lock 
rifles. In those days they would get together on Saturdays 
and shoot for beef —that is, some man would put up a beef 
somewhat after the fashion of ladies putting up a quilt to be 
raffled off at the present day. The best shot took choice 
quarter, second best second choice, third best shot third 
choice, fourth best shot got the hide and tallow. They form- 
ed beef clubs, and some one member of the club would kill 
each week and divide with all the others, each getting the 
piece due him until he had received the amount due him. 

In those early days they usually had large families and 
when one neighbor conceived the idea of paying a visit to 
another nnighbor he would get up old Broad and Bright, or 
Lep and Loge, and yoke them up, hitch them to an old tar- 
pole wagon, while his wife would wash the children clean 
and nice, put on their pretly home-spun linsey dresses, 
with a piece of red, blue or yellow ribbon tied in their hair, 
for the girls, and the new coperas "t)ritches" for the boys. 
All hands would load into the wagon, and about the middle 
of the afternoon on Saturday evening they would drive up 
to neighbor Smith's, unload the precious load of humanity, 
hobble and bell the steers, turn them out on the grass and 
then they were ready for fun until late Sunday evening or 
early Monday morning. 

The men would go ''fire hunting" at night, kill from two 
to a dozen deer, or go out with their dogs and catch any- 
where from five to twenty-five 'possums, while the women 
folks would get together and talk of the things that con- 
cerned them. The visiting lady would go into the kitchen or 



18 EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

smoke or cow pen with her neighbor while the children 
would play and romp, and have their fun playing "Molly, 
Molly Bright," "Hiding Switch," "William a Trimbletoe," 
"Chickany, Chickany, Crany Crow, wefnt to the well to wash 
my toe, when I came back one of my chickens was gone, 
what o'clock old witch?" "Puss in the Corner," "Hide and 
Seek," and soon. Now, dear reader, if one of your neigh- 
bors should visit you on Saturday with ten or fifteen child- 
ren to stay until Monday morning, you would be tempted to 
leave home or commit suicide. 

The good women of today would not know how to pre- 
pare sleeping quarters for so many, but our grandmothers 
knew. They would make down a pallet covering the entire 
floor, and the children woidd tumble down and go to s\ee]^ 
as they tired of theii' play. These people were the happiest 
people that ever lived. And their religion was of the plain, 
unvarnished kind. They worshiped God with loving, trust- 
ing hearts, They loved their God and they loved their 
neighbors. 

Imagine their freedom from annoyance by agents— 
lightning rod agent, sewing machine agent, book agent, 
patent medicine agent, stove repairers, clock* tinkers, scis- 
sors' sharpener, tombstone agent, fruit tree agent, news- 
paper agent, life and fire insurance agent, and all other pes- 
tiferous classes, who are swarijiing up and down the world 
today, "seeking whom they may devour." 

Many funny things happened in those days. People 
were as full of mischief as they could be. Many a poor ten- 
derfoot, green from the States, has served his apprentice- 
ship snipe hunting. Imagine him from Georgia, or Alabama 
either, coming out to Texas to teach school, practice law, or 
run for office as was most generally the case, sitting on the 
end of a log, in the bed of a creek with a sack, which had 
a loop fixed in it to keep the mouth of the sack open, with a 
piece of tallow candle about an inch long, while his comrades, 
supposed to have gone up the creek to drive the snipes, have 
in reality gone home. Does he not look wonderfully dignified 
and intelligent? And as he watches and waits, as his little 



19 EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

candle is buriiinoj low, he is contemplating a race for County 
Judge, County Clerk, or Sheriff, or anything that comes 
along. 

There were few church houses in those days, but all 
school houses were used for the preaching, and the different 
religious bodies had their day. When the time came for 
revival meetings a brush arbor was built and the meeting 
held out of doors. People went to meeting on foot, horseback 
or in wagons— a buggy was almost unknown to the people in 
the country. At that time the men sat on one side of the 
house and the women on the other. This prevented your 
whispering to your girl during service, but you could "cast a 
sheep's eye" at her across the room. The father and his 
small boys sat together while the mother cared for the girls. 
With the uncomfortable log and plank seats people would sit 
stih and hear a discourse for an hour and a half arid some- 
times two hours, as it was unsafe to go to sleep while sitting 
or the backless seats. Besides, the preacheir pounded upon 
his stand to keep you roused up. He would read the hymn 
from a book without musical notes, as nore books 
in church service were not known then, and some brother 
would lead the tune. People sometimes gave a preacher 
money in those days, but more often his pay was in socks 
and things really good to eat. 

The little church with clapboard roof and split-log walls 

Has always seemed a better place than stately marble hall 

In which to talk with Him who walked among the poor and low, 

And didn't watch subscription lists to give a man a show. 

It always seemed to me that he would rather stand aloof 

When he Hjs message had to send down through a mortgaged root. 

Many of the old settlers opposed instrumental music in 
the church. They fought agamst an organ in the choir and 
stood out staunchly against a piano. It was not that they 
believed there was anything wicked in an organ or a piano, 
but they objected to the introduction of mechanisms into 
their worship. They believed it was sincerity rather than 
sound that the Lord w^ants. 

There are people now who do not get religion jnst like 
they did when I was a boy. They are very quiet about it. 



20 EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

But when I was a boy if a man got religion, something hap- 
pened at once, as he proceeded to shout loud enough to be 
heard by the whole neighborhood. Sometimes, during a 
paroxysm of rehgion, it required several able-bodied men to 
hold him down. 

But the old-time preacher and most of his congregation 
have passed to their rewards. These pioneer servants of 
God preached His gospel for the love of His cause. They 
knew little of the art of saying much and meaning little. 
They were a little behind on grammar and a big salary, but 
they were never behind in the service of their Master. 

"At church with meek and unaffected grace, 
His looks adorned the venerable place ; 
Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway, 
And those who came to scoff remain€«li to pray." 

The old-time "sings" at the church and school houses 
and in the home, with father and mother and the youngsters 
singing in unison is a recollection that many a person cher- 
ishes today. These "sings" would nearly always come on 
Sunday evening and, if in the home, the neighbors were in- 
vited to come in and take part in them. There is nothing 
like the recollection of an old tune that we whistled and 
hummed in childhood. It would be difficult to estimate the 
influence of many of the old time songs. To them belong the 
credit of the sweeter influences and the sweeter experiences 
in many a man's life. 

''There's a lot of music in 'em, the hymns of long ago 

And when some gray-haired brother sings the ones I used to know. 

I sorter want to take a hand. I think of days gone by, 

'On Jordan's stormy banks I stand and cast a wistful eye !' 

We never needed singing books in them old days— we knew 

The words— the tunes of every one— the dear o.d hymn book through ! 

We dicn't have no trumpets then, ro organs built for show, 

We only sang and 'praised the Lord from whom all bessin^s flow,' " 

What a sweet memory was the old-fashioned, mid-week 

prayer meeting of our boyhood days, with father sitting up 

in front and mother over in the corner with some fidgety 

boys by her side. Mifther and father would join in singing 

that grand old song that we hear too seldom in these days: 



21 EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

^'Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, 
Ihat caiis me from a world of care • 
And bids me at my Father's throne' 
Make ail my wants and wishes known." 

And I recall with fond memories the custom of daily 
family prayer in my father's house. We were always on 
time at breakfast then, in order that there might be no 
delay of prayer. It would have taken a catastrophe to have 
interrupted the custom, and it grew to be a part of our lives 
It gave an upward look to the whole day. 

The old-time schools were of the primary grade, school 
houses few and far apart, and the conyeniences few Let 
our present day teachers contrast present conditions with 
those that confronted the teachers then and decide what 
they would do under such circumstances. The typica^ 
school house of that day had a door in the east end and chim^ 
ney m the west, with split logs for seats, and no desks The 
half logs were hewed smooth on the spht side to save the 
Aiothers some patching of pants. Holes were bored in the 
round side at an angle and pins driven in for legs These 
would get loose and some boy, full of fun, seeing his oppor- 
tunity, would pull one out and down would come those seated 
on It. In those days the boys and girls enjoyed the recesses 
and the noon hour and many games were played They 
playedmarbles, mumble peg, bullpen, base and town ball 
while the girls had play houses, swings and ropes to jump 
The teacher executed the law with a long switch. Most of 
the teachers of that day were men; woman's day had not yet 
come. 

In one of the schools that I attended when I was a boy 
the teacher had a dunce cap. It was a long, pointed, paper 
contrivance used for the purpose of subjecting a victim to 
the gibes and persecutions of the other scholars round about 
him. It must have been invented to save teachers the hard 
work of whipping students who do not progress. But times 
change and the school teachers of today have cast the dunce 
cap into the scrap heap of horrid memories. Still the cap- 
less dunce remains and he cannot easily be thrown aside. 
He goes to school session after session and grows up, buds 



22 EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

into citizenship and bears fruit— buttj^e fruit is a fooJ. Never- 
theless he is happy. Nature has made him an optimist, 
and come what may his iojnorance will insure him a good 

time. 

Whenever I look in memory's glass 

Whnt pictures there may be. 

And views of doings of bygone days, 

This one thing puz/les me: 

"Why the things and scenes I would most recall 

Hare vanished cle^r away; 

Wliile the times I have made a fool of myself 

Are as fresh as yesterday. 

Fifty years asco the common salutation among neighbors 
was, "How are youens today?" And the reply came. 
"Weuns are well." In those days they produced most that 
they used on the farm and did not trade much, going to mar 
ket, often one hundred miles distant, once or twice a year 
for sugar, coffee and salt. The tobacco that was chewed 
and smoked at that time was home raised, and the devil had 
not invented the cigarette. There were no saloons, but 
whiskey was sold by the grocers by the gallon. The pur 
chaser took his jug home and had his morning toddy or 
spiked his coffee. The farming tools were made at the local 
blacksmith and wood shops, and riding plows were unheard 
of. Small errain was cut with scythe and cradle and bound 
b.\ hand. 

Speaking of harvesting small grain reminds me of what 
an old settler once told me. He said: "People in Ten- 
nessee could not harvest their grain without whiskey. When 
they stopped to rest and whet their blades ti.ey would take 
their toddy." And the following is proof that his father, who 
came here from Tennessee^ must have brought this custom 
with him to Texas. Continuing the old settler said: "I re- 
member that during one harvest when I was about fourteen 
years old my father sent my brother Jim with me to a gro- 
cer to get a gallon jug filled with whiskey. We had to go 
about a mile, and on the way back we began to discuss the 
question as to whether the jug was full or not. We called a 
halt and I drew the cob stopper out and touched the end to 
my tongue to see if it was wet. I decided that the grocer 



^^ EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

had given us good measure and placed the cob back We 
came on our journey until we reached the harvest hands 
About the first question asked by my grandfather was- 
i^oys. did you drink any?' I replied, No Sir.' He then 
said to my brother, 'Jim, did you boys not drink some^' He 
replied. No Sir, but Bob, he licked the stopper." 

Speaking of whiskey makes me remember that when I 
was sticRirig" type for a newspaper in the early days a 
man by the name of Moon married a women by the name' of 
Mar. It consumated a long courtship during which Moon 
had been mooning along seeing stars in day tiirie The 
moon spent a happy honeymoon. After awhile Mrs Moon 
presented Mr. Moon with a new "Moon, which so elated him 
that he got drunk on "Old Kentucky" whiskey. That was 
a full Moon." When he sobered up he had only 25 cents 
eft, and that was the "last quarter." When he arrived at 
home thao night his mother-in-]aw was acting as "evening 
star. " She met him at the door and there was a total eclipse 
of the Moon. 

The old settlers frequently used jagged words and I 
must confess to a liking for them, although I have never 
been allowed to use them -especially at home. The smooth- 
spoken folks of today who insist on using "large" instead of 
big, and limb" in place of "leg," appear to get shaky at 
the sound of a good old-fashioned word. The man who in- 
vehted the word "limbs" for "legs" ought to feel sadly 
ashamed of himself . He would no more think of calling a 
wooden leg a hmb than he would go up to his butcher and 
ask how much a pound that "limb of mutton" was. Home- 
Imess-honest homeliness, has something that rather tugs at 
my fancy, because experience with mules, and furniture 
and folks teaches me that in homeliness there is strength' 
Come to think of it, though, I take back what I said about 
mules. They are homely enough, and strong enough; but I 
was speaking of honest homeliness, and there is nothing 
honest about the mule's kick. There are a lot of folks who 
reckon the value of a word and the rattle of a snake alike— 



24 EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

by the number of joints there are in it; but they are not so 
sickening as those folks who "perspire" at hard work, and 
suffer from "indigestion" when other folks would be owning 
up to old-fashioned stomach ache like the old settlers had in 
their day. 

In the days of our grandfathers a couple of thousand 
words were about all a man could afford. In those days any 
man could hammer out enough words in his own home to 
give himself a large and lurid vocabulary, and home-made 
words were more popular than the dictionary kind, and when 
a man who mixed up his own language met a man who dug 
his out of the dictionary with the aid of a few pale, spectacled 
professors of English and style, the two frequently had to 
talk to each other by signs. But most of the slang ex- 
pressions of today are business "short cuts." For instance, 
the use of the word "boss" for employer and "job" for posi- 
tion. When a busy employer, these days, tells his sten- 
ographer to "kill" a letter he has just dictated, he does not 
have to go into a long explanation and she does not have to 
ask a question. She does not even smile at his funny re- 
mark, but simply does as she is told and kills the letter. 

There are few old settlers here today who can remember 
the first cooking stove brought into their neighborhood. 
But as young as I am, I can remember the first kerosene 
lamp brought to our house. Father bought one of them as 
we were running short of candles and tallow was scarce. It 
was a brass lamp with a little slender neck and had a little 
brass cap that fitted over the wick when not in use. It held 
about a gill of oil and with one extra wick cost 25 cents^ 
Mother filled the lamp with oil and made us children stand 
back whilH she proceeded to light it. I remember the feeling 
of awe that came over me when mother lighted the lamp and 
told us not to get too close to it, as it might bust at any time. 
But it was not long until everybody was using the little brass 
lamp, as it furnished a cheaper light than candles. Highly 
prized as the little brass lamp was then, it would give a very 
poor light if filled with the low grade oil we are using these 
days. 



^^ EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

Sometimes in the early days the pioneers had to stand 
back or hide in the swamp, while the Indians came and took 
their best horses, corn and other things if they wanted them 
When a young couple got married they started out with a 
brand-new log house, not completed. The new married 
couple were rich if they had a barrel of flour. Their door^ 
were not even hung, so they would take one door and lay it 
on a barrel for a table. The bed was made on the floor, with 
the pillows set by the wall. Tbey had only one towel if the 
grand ^"'^ ^ '"*'* P^^^^ dress to work in she felt very 

The building of a log house was a job of some magni- 
tude, as there were no saw mills or shingle mills here. The 
settlers had to select straight- bodied trees (they were olen 
tiful, as the timber had not been "cut over" then as it is 
now), chop them down and cut off the logs the lengths thev 
wanted, drag them with a yoke of oxen to the place they had 
selected to buiid their house, and then with such help as 
they could get, raise the logs, put them in place and notch 
them down. A large, straight-grained oak or pine tree was 
next feUed, blocks generally three feet long sawed off, out 
of which boards were made to cover the house Often 
weight" poles were put on top of the boards tp hold them 
•n place until nails could be secui-ed from a disUnt market 
to nail them on with. A "puncheon" floor was next made 
and to make this trees were selected that would split 
straight. After the logs had been spUt open an adze was 
used to smooth the surface of the spht side. They were 
then laid on the sills and fitted close together. 

It was no uncommon sight in those days to see girls go- 
ing to church walking or horse-back, wearing bonnets and 
white aprons with long strings hanging down their backs 
But times have changed. No more do we see the giris going 
to church with their shoes and their stockings in their 
hands, as they did then, and just before they got to the 
church house they sat down and put them on. Their beaus 
would go home with them and all would sit around the one 
fire, and that is where and how they entertained them every 



26 EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

Sunday. Now they have to go car riding evening and nights 
to spark. All a boy has to do is to toot his auto horn at the 
gate and the girl comes running. She may be only slightly 
acquainted vvnth him and does not know whether he can drive 
a car or not, but why does that matter so long as she gets 

to go. 

In pioneer days it was home-spun jeans, linsey ana cot- 
ton checks or plaids— all woven on the loom at home. Now 
its— oh! pshaw, I cannot commence to name the stuff, but it 
costs like rip and is made to sell, wear a few times and be 
cast aside. Then you have got to buy more, make it or have 
it made and wear it or be relegated to the shades of "Old 
Fogy," or "Tightwad," and frowned or snickered out of 
modern society. 

Where are we drifting? In the early days the pioneers 
were poor and knew it; we are poor and do not know it. Today 
we try to ape the rich, who are able to dress in extreme 
fashion, regardless of our means, which has led many fam- 
ilies to financial shipwreck. I love to see people dress re- 
spectably and enjoy themselves, but there is a happy mien 
in all these things, and when that is passed in the direction 
of extravagance, we distress and enslave ourselves. For the 
sake of keeping up with the styles many people harass them- 
selves with debt, wear themselves out, and keep themselves 
in a constant nervous strain by giving fashionable dinners, 
fashionable entertaining, and making fashionable calls. How 
much better is a plain, quiet home, where all is peace and 
cordiahty, the neighbors heartily welcome to come and go at 
will, and freed from the pestering, senseless conventionaUties 
of fashionable life. 

Women, it seems, have ever delighted in styles that 
change with the season and with the years, but return again 
in cycles that appear to have no beginning and to approach 
no end. She and her clothes are the joint symbols of the 
truth that nothing is so immutable as mutabihty. But why 
single out women for the crime of beautifying themseles and 
making use of senseless vanities? How many fond husbands 
would be willing to have their wives put aside the means that 



27 EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

keep them attractive? The modern man wants to be proud 
of his Rood-looking wife, and if she requires face powder and 
any other "deceiving" aids to that end he cheerfully pays 
the bill and endures the powder marks on his coat shoulder. 
Today we want an automobile when we are only able to 
own a horse and and buggy; we want a fine suit of clothes 
when we can only afford a plain one for service. When our 
boys are 15 or 17 years old they must have tailored clothes 
and a dinky hat; their noses turn up at a "hand-me-down" 
suit. And girls are not satisfied unless they are stylishly 
togged up until they look like exclamation points turned 
upside down. The old-timer who is still living today deplores 
modern degeneracy and looks back to the frontier damsels 
of fifty years ago as much superior to the modern belle ar- 
rayed in "store fixins." I incline to the belief that the old- 
timer is "kerrect"— that girls look best with a figure all 
their own, as they used to appear when they dressed with a 
sensible view. 

I'm thankful I lived in the good old days 

When the boys were boys sure enough, 
When the girls disdained all padding and stays. 

Rut soncietimes took a little snuff. 
No hankering then for the wasp-like waist 

And the "Deputant Slouch" was unknown— 
When a boy met a girl suiting his taste 

He knew her "shape" was all her own. 
The boys then had good reason to know 

When they went hunting for a bride, 
That they would not find her a 'scare-crow" 

When togs and pads were laid aside. 

Where is the old-fashioned boy? The boy who sweated 
his collar down while calhng on his sweetheart on the coldest 
day, and in his embarrassment could think of no topic of con- 
versation except the weather? And where is the old-fash- 
ioned boy who courted three or four years before he could 
muster up sufficient courage to ask the girl to marry him? 
Boys have changed, and girls too. In pioneer days they 
lived under primitive conditions, seldom meeting in a social 
way. But in spite of their bashfulness they proposed mar- 
riage at ac early age, and an equal number of girls were 
brave enough to accept them. Now the boys and girls lack 



28 EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

the timidity of their grandparents, but as a rule they are 
not bold enough to marry before th6y get grown. 

In the early days they would sit up late at night, card 
and spin and knit stockings by a pine knot light. If they 
got their task done before bedtime they could read awhile. 
As newspapers were scarce they read the Bible. But the 
old time practice of spinning and weaving is no more. The 
old hand machines will never again be called upon to supply 
the wearing apparel of the household. But the home-spun, 
home-dyed coverlet, counterpanes, carpets and rugs of those 
days possessed wonderful wearing qualities when compared 
with the present day commercial article. And they were 
f reqently made a real work of art. Who has not treasured 
some of those home-made articles for their serviceability, 
their beauty and their individuality. 

Wives and mothers of tifty years ago were proud to ex- 
hibit the result of their industry in the manufacture of cloth 
and the making of garments for their families. There is no 
call for any such w^ork in our day, yet there are enough calls 
to duty in every home to keep the housekeeper busy. But 
in the cities and larger towns today home to many women 
means nothing more than a place where they take their clothes 
to be washed and ironed; to the man a place to eat and sleep ^ 
their evenings t>eing spent at clubs and other places of 
amusement. Societies of various kinds occupy much of 
their time. The old-fashioned home- keepers have become 
almost a lost quantity. The children are sent to school at 
the age of six and the mothers are at liberty to flit about until 
they return at noon when the lunch of food, prepared outside 
the home, is placed before the family. 

And when a woman now puts what days she is at home 
to callers in one corner of her card, it is a sign that her hus- 
band is making money, and that her friend is no longer at 
liberty to w^rap a white apron and her sewing up in a paper, 
go over in the afternoon, leaving word for her husband to 
come at six and stay to tea. She likes her friend as ever, 
but society demands too much of her time these days, for 
her to give an entire afternoon to one visitor. Would it not 



29 ' EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

be better for the ladies to return to the good old days, as 
they were before society stole from them all their bright- 
ness and pleasure. 

Looking back at the early day s, I wonder what has be- 
come of the dear mother who was proud of the neat patch 
she could put on the seat of her boy's pants, who made hick- 
ory suspenders and lined the boy's straw hat with cambric? 
And where is the old-fashioned father who set out his boots 
for his son to black on Saturday, and also furnished him 
with a sharp(?)axe to cut up a wagon load of green hickory 
poles for the Sunday fire? What has become of the man 
whose shoes squeaked as he walked cautiously down the 
church aisle in the old-time "meeting house?" And the old 
settler who could hear a cow bell in the distance and deter- 
mine by the sound of the bell whether Blossom was grazing 
or coming home? And the girl wearing a bonnet, a real 
cloth bonnet, not a hat— who swept the yard Saturday after- 
noon in anticipation of Sunday company? And the boy who 
used a slate as a book shelf between the school house and his 
home? And the young man who tipped his hat to his el ders? 
And the housewife who knew how many holes a quilting 
frame should have? And the girl who never got on the left 
side of a cow to milk her? And the boy who carved his ini- 
tials on a sweetgum tree and watched the letters disappear 
by the time he put on long pants? 

Whenever I see a bare-foot boy (which is uncommon 
these days), one foot tied up in a rag, stumping along the 
road or sidewalk on one foot and the heel of the injured one, 
he recalls many recollections of my bare-foot boyhood days, 
common to all men who read this. How terrible was the 
affliction of a sore toe, then, but the memory of it is sweet, 
because it brings back memories of days long fled when 
hope ran high. What man is there among my readers who 
does not remember those glorious days of his childhood 
when stumped toes were daily companions, and life seemed 
dull when fishing trips and ball games were spoiled by in- 
clement weather? "Blessings on thee, little man, bare-foot 
boy with face of tan," who is soon to take his place among 



30 EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

the men who are to run this grreat country, and on whose 
shoulders will rest the responsibilities of society. No mat- 
ter how great the bare-foot boy may become, how high his 
station, he wiir always hold sacred and hallowed those "sore 
toe" days. 

The neighborly spirit of the early days! Have we visited 
our new neighbors? Have we visitei the sick and clothed 
the naked? But we do not have time now. And so the old- 
time friendly visitors no more darken our doors, nor do we 
enjoy life as we once did. We are not ourselves. We have 
not the time to call and see why so and so was not in his 
accustomed place. Then if he was sick it was in the paper, 
we read about it and possibly commented upon the fact that 
he had a good doctor and would get well and be at his place 
in a short time. But a short call to see how he is, would put 
new life into him, and he would feel better by knowing that 
some one besides his family is interested in him. But, alas! 
we must seek our fortune and then we shall have plenty and 
not need our old-time friends. Had we not better stop and 
see why it is that we are running' through life and do not 
have the time to seek the friendship of our neighbors that 
they had in the olden days. 

It is said that necessity is the mother of invention and 
this was often true of the old settlers. A good friend of 
mine, who was in Texas before I came into the world, tells 
me how he and his brother made a place to scald some hogs, 
which they had purchased and slaughtered away from home. 
They dug a hole in the ground like a grave and tilled it nearly 
full of water and then heated it with hot rocks out of a log 
fire near by. He says that he never saw nicer cleaned hogs. 
In the early days when the settlers had failed to bring a 
"wash pot" with them from the old States, they would go 
out in the woods and select a hollow tree about three feet 
through, chop it down and fashion it like a log hog trough. 
After heading it up, they would bury it in the ground and 
fill it nearly full of water. They would use long hickory 
withes, looped, to get the hot rocks out of the fire and into 
the trough. In the minds of the old settlers this made a 



31 EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

most excellent vat for scalding hogs, but we of today would 
think that it was a iX)or makeshift, compared to our vats, 
with furnace underneath for heating the water. 

Speaking of hogs reminds me of a story that was relat^^d 
to me of a man who was going through the woods one day in 
the olden times, who saw a gang of hogs rushing to and fro. 
He watclied them for a time and passing on saw an old-timer 
leaning on a rai] fence, approached him and asked what was 
the matter with the swine. The old settler replied in a 
cracked voice that he had formerly called his hogs as other 
people do, but during a tussle with the "Grippe" the fall be- 
fore lost his voice, but trained his hogs to come all right by 
knocking on the fence. "That worked all right," said the 
old-timer, "all winter, but this spring when the pecker- 
woods got busy they are runiiing my fool hogs to death." 
That is the way with many of us nowadays. When we hear 
a woodpecker knock over here, we rush this way, and when 
he knocks over there we are ihere, when the red- headed 
bird is not knocking for us or for principle, but for the bug 
under the chip. 

Even the rich man of fifty years ago had fewer comforts 
around him than the poor man has today. The well was 
usually about fifty yards from the house, and ^he spring was 
often half a mile off. The tallow candles that were used for 
fighting purposes gave a very poor light, and it was custom- 
ary for tired and sleepy boys to wash their feet in the horse- 
trough before they went to bed. But times have changed. 
Instead of the boy of today washing his feet in the horse- 
trough, he thinks it a hardship if he has to use a bath tub 
which is not attached to his own bed room. Now the well 
is located at the edge of the back gallery. If the town is of 
any size it has waterworks and hot water is supplied, as well 
as cold. lu my boyhood days when we wanted to wash the 
dishes we had to heat water in a pot on the fire. And as for 
water earlier in the morning, in winter we woke to find not 
only no hot water, but the water in the bucket frozen. 

Another sign of the times is the passing of the parlor 
and the making of the best room in the house the living 



32 EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

room. Among the well-to-do in the early days the parlor 
was like a new suit of clothes, only to be used on special oc- 
casions. It was usually furnished with uncomfortable chairs 
that were covered up during the week and used on Sunday. 
Times have changed, however, and people are furnishing 
rooms, instead of parlors. Today we find the piano and big, 
comfortable chairs, that are ready for use all the time. So in 
the average home the living room has taken the place of the 
parlor. People today are realizing the importance of having 
a house furnished in real homelike fashion for service. 

One of the advantages in the good old times was that a 
man could carry a q uarter in his pocket for a month without 
seeing anything he wanted to spend it for. And it used to 
be said, "Save the nickels and dimes, and the dollars will 
take care of themselves. Now it is, "Spend the nickels and 
dimes and you will never have dollars to bother you. *' There 
used to be more or less chance to save the nickels and dimes, 
but there has come a change in times, wherein the owrers of 
nickels and dimes finding that it requires dollars to buy any- 
thing, save up just enough of them to make a dollar, and 
then spend it for something a nickel or dime used to buy, for 
times are not like they once were. 

If there ever was a man who earned his money it was the 
early day doctor. He was much in the saddle and frequently 
followed cow trails through the brush and woods, and his 
charges were unusually light compared with this day and 
time. He may not have been as well up in medicine as the 
doctor of today, but often his practice extended over a terri- 
tory two or three times as big as a county, and to cover this 
he had to go in a gallop. Today when the services of a doc- 
tor are needed the telephone is used to call one and in about 
thirty minutes the honk of his auto is heard as he turns the 
corner of the yard fence in front of the house. How differ- 
ent it was with the early day doctor. In those days there 
were no telephones and autos had not been thought of. 
Instead of a ring from his telephone announcing that his ser- 
vices were needed at the house of Bill Jones, distant about 
three miles, he would be yelled at by an old settler, who came 



33 EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

at full speed on a Spanish pony, and told that Mrs. Smith, 
who lived on Elm creek, ten or twenty miles away, was hav- 
ing hard fits, and to come at once as fast as he could. Often, 
when a boy, have I seen the doctor pass our house under 
whip and spur, his whiskers flying: in the wind and his sad- 
dle-bags flopping up and down. 

"How firm was our faith in the old-fashioned doctor, 
' Who came with his remedies ready to use, 

And cured us of fever and ague and headache 

With forty nine bottles of different hues ; 
With capsules and pellets, pills, powders and sirups. 

In doses colossal, sweet, bitter and sour, 
And poured the things down us in rapid succession, 

Explicitly ordering more in an hour." 

But the doctor of today comes in an aura of sunshine and 

cheerfulness and hope. He investigates matters and writes 

a prescription. Orders fresh air, less tobacco and coffee, 

more sleep, plain diet and exercise. The poet has said: 

"The doctor he comes a smiling and he holds my weary hand, 
And he says Fll soon get better, and soon that he will let me stand ; 
He promises the roses to my cheeks shall come again, 
And he laughs away the ferer, and he jokes away the pain. 

The doctor he is clever, sure and certain to his skill, 

And his people long have praised him for his work among the ill; 

But its not his wisdom only that the life of us insures. 

And its not his pills and tonics, but the heart of him that cures." 

In the early days they did not know they had an appen- 
dix, and some died with billious colic before appendicitis 
was discovered. Once it was thought that every organ in 
our body was necessary for our welfare, but the doctors 
now are removing more and more of our organs until some 
of us have few left. Our forefathers did not worry about 
germs because they did not know there were such things, 
but science now claims that in the tangled fastness of the 
old-timer's whiskers there were enough germs to start an 
epidemic. But he was strong and well and able to drink six 
bottles of wine without falling under the table, and we are 
not. So I think their freedom from germ theories was what 
counted most. Even in our time, if we cut our finger we 
used to run right to the germiest corner of the stable and 
haul down a fuzzy handful of cobwebs and slap on the cut. 
We didn't die from it, either. 




H4 EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

Peo]:)le of today expatiate long: and loud over the virtues 
of buttermilk, but to my mind persimmon beer that is prop- 
erly brewed and thoroughly a^ed, outshines, outsparkles, 
outstrips and outclasses all the other beverages as a sooth- 
ing, soul-satisfying and health invigoratinsr drink. If people 
only had persimmon beer to drink now (as in my boyhood 
days), prohibitionistis would cease to proclaim and the antis 
would cease their antics. 

There are people who think sasafras tea is largely a 
fake, something like the Irish potato cure for rheumatism, 
(which I believe in and practice.). For a long time it has 
been fixed in the minds of many people that sasafras tea is a 
poor man's drink, and that the poorer he gets the more he 
drinks of it. But a man of that class ought not to be asham- 
ed of it. I know men who are in constant dread for fear 
people will find out they are not well fixed in this world's 
goods. So to keep down suspicion they buy coffee two 
pounds to Tihe dollar and green tea one pound for Sl.25. They 
buy nothing but the highest priced goods. Some of our 
grocers have learned that when certain.customers come into 
the store they must raise the price to that customer or lose 
a sale. Now then, to think of drinking sasafras tea without 
price and without cost brings a shock to the entire system. 
Not so long ago a man, who drank sasafras tea when he was 
a boy, was caught burying sasafras roots in his back yard 
through fear that if caught with the goods what little credit 
the family had would be gone. I long to see the time return 
when it will not be regarded as a proof of poverty to drink a 
little sasafras tea for the stomach's sake. We all want it, 
and some of us really need it. I drank it when I was a boy, 
and the old pioneers of Texas banked on it to thin their blood 
in the spring of the year. 

Almost everything is being sacrificed nowadays to the 
spirit of practicability. Old love letters are destroyed be- 
cause desk room is needed. The spreading oak that marked 
for decades the turn of the road is destroyed to give room 
for a modern sign that tells the same story. The baby's 
first pair of shoes, wee, dainty and soft as they are, are 



35 EARLY DAYS IN TEXAS 

thrown in the trash pile that there may be room in the top 
drawer for the powder box All of this destruction of old 
time sentiment and the basis of reminiscence is all wrong. 
The most interesting: spot in or near the capitol city of our 
nation is Mount Vernon. The most magnificent square in 
Philadelphia is Independence Hall. The most valuable spot 
in Texas is the Old Alamo at San Antonio, the most mem- 
orable places in our communities are the cemeteries where 
the old pioneers sleep the dreamless sleep, after spending 
their lives nobly battUng to clear the way for the civilization 
we enjoy today. Such places as these contain history, and 
the citizen who views, and thinks while viewing— and no one 
can view without thinking — becomes instantly a patriot, like- 
wise a better husband and a better father. 



EARLY DAYS IN RAINS COUNTY 



Excerpts from "Reminiscences of Sixty Years 
Ago/' by Rev. Ambrose Fitzgerald, 

(NOTE— The late venerable Rev. Ambrose Fitzgerald came to 
Texas at at early day— 1846~and settled in the boundaries of w-hat is 
now Rains County while it was still in what was known as the J>acog- 
uoches Land District. In 1846 Van Zandt County w-as created. When 
but 19 years of age. Rev. Fitzgerald was elecied first Clerk of that 
Coui:ty. In 1850, responsive to a legislative fiat, Wood |>ounty was 
created from Van Zandt County. He was elected first Clerk of that 
County, which office he held until the €ivil War, when he resigned his 
office to accept a Captain's commission in Col. R. B. Hubbard s regi- 
mt-nt. Confederate army. After peace was restored he was again elect- 
pu Clerk of the County Court of Wood County, which office he con- 
liiiued to hold until Rains County was spoken into being in 18<U, Kama 
including his habitat. Very soon thereafter he w;as elected Assessor 
and Collector of Taxes for Rains County, and later District and County 
Clerk, which position he held during life. Rev Fitzgerald was the in- 
timate friend and associate of many of the ^reat men of Texas, who 
helped to lay the foundatipn for the future greatnet^s of his adopted 
vState. For forty years a minister ol the Baptist Church, he was said to 
Jiave baptized more converts during his ministry than »"y other 
preacher in so sparsely a settled country. He died June 15, 1893.) 

A short time since this writer stood by the side of an 
old antiquated chimney bank about two and a half miles 
northeast of Emory. And as he stood there musing solitary 
and alone, he felt sad and reflective. He remembered this 
identical spot forty-four years ago was the termination of a 
long and wearisome journey from a distant state on the part 
of himself; then an inexperienced, moneyless, but married 
boy, still in his teens, with his brave, girlish wife, two years 
his junior, by his side, deposited for a time a very small 
amount of earthly goods (but all they possessed) in the little 
unpretending log cabin indicated by this bank; which cabin 
by long use, and the wear of time and decay, like the dear 
one then by my side, and many others very dear, have passed 
from observation, but not from memory. My old time friend 



37 EARLY DAYS IN RAINS COUNTY 

now of Emory, I. C. A. and myself, are about all the living 
witnesses here now of those days. In my musings I remem- 
bered that this was then Nacogdoches; afterwards Henderson, 
Van Zandt and Wood, but now Rains county, and that there 
is very little similarity in the appearance of the face of the 
country now and then. The same applies tathe people and 
the seasons of ''now and then." Then, mostly uninhabited 
except by wild animals, such as the Mustang horse, wild 
cattle, bear, wild cats, deer and turkeys, etc. in abundance, 
from which source the few people here obtained their meats 
for family supplies for a long while; and by the aid of a 
mortor and pestle, or steel mill run by hand, they manufac- 
tured their bread; and those who could afford the luxury of 
coffee would travel a long distance over the almost roadless 
country and barter deer skins for that article. A better 
range country there was never known; large cane brakes, 
almost impenetrable, covered the creek and branch bottoms 
ten or twelve feet high in places where now there are no 
indications that a cane stalk ever grew. As to markets and 
trading points, we had none, and gave ourselves no trouble 
about that inconvenienc'e. The people were poor, but they 
were coatented and comparatively happy: yet in their pov- 
erty a kinder and more benevolent people never lived; they 
would share any and everything they had with their neigh- 
bors. Though their cabins were often ten miles apart, the 
same courtesy was in like manner extended to all strangers; 
and realizing these things as I then did, I cannot refrain 
from exclaiming way down in my heart, "God bless every 
old Texan!" 

And as I stood by that old chimney mound, which occa- 
sion put in motion this train of thought, I remembered and 
recognized the place in the gulch, or branch, where wife and 
I obtained our water supply, which was then very scarce, 
and where I nursed the baby — our first born — while she 
would wash a few garments. 

And on kneeling down to get a drink, 

Dear Ike I startled so 
To see how sadly I had changed 

Since forty years ago ; 



38 EARLY DAYS IN RAINS COUNTY 

My lids have long been dry, dear Ike. 

But tears came in my eyes; 
I thought of those we loved so well, 

Those early broken ties. 
And when our lime shall come, dear Ike, 

And we are called to yo, 
I hope they'll lay us not far from where 

We suffered full sixty years ago. 

Van Zandt county was created from the territory of Hen- 
derson county by an act of the Legislature, March 20, 1848, 
and its limits as defined embraced its present territory, as 
well as that of Wood, and nearly all of the present county of 
Rains. Jordan Saline ( now Grand Saline) was designated 
by the Act as the county capitol for the period of two years. 
The election of county officers was held on the first Monday 
in August, 1848, nearly, if not quite every voter in the county 
exercised his franchise privilege on that occasion, polling in 
the aggregate 87 votes, all told. The following were the 
county officers elected, towit: Gilbert Yarborough, Chief 
Justice, (nearly corresponding to the office of County Judge 
at present); John Jordan, Thomas Horsley, Joseph Fisher, 
and Isham Clark, County Commissioners; P. S. Benton, 
Sheriff; Dr. James D. Wright, District Clerk; A. Fitzgerald, 
County Clerk; W. C. Greer, Assessor and Collector of Taxes; 
Cary L. Rice, Surveyor, and Peter Kukendall, County Treas- 
urer. Under the provisions of the law the election returns 
were to be made to the Chief Justice of Henderson; conse- 
quently John Jordan, Commissioner, (at the time principal 
owner of the Saline), and the writer hereof, mounted each 
on an average mustang pony, with lasso attached, and filled 
up with the usual camp equippage, common in those 
days, set out with our elections returns for the capitol of Hen- 
derson county, which we found to be a little clapboard shanty 
of an apology for a tow^n, called Buffalo, on the bank of the 
Trinity river, and delivered our certificate of election, being 
each sworn into our respective offices, and returned home 
and finished up our organization of the county. On this trip 
we saw an abundance of wild game— antelopes, deer, tur- 
keys, wolves, etc., and a small herd of buffalo had crossed 
our path the night before we passed. 



i 



39 EARLY DAYS IN RAINS COUNTY 

On our trip to the capitol of Hendersoii county with our 
election returns, our friend Jordan conducted us several 
miles off our route (for we were governed more by course 
than roads), to call on his old time friend, Jacob Dooey, 
Esq., in order to sit under his cooling bower, and talk up 
their past and break bread with him. The writer was im- 
pressed that on our arrival at Mr. Dooey 's, we would find 
things shaped up in something like "Old State style," but 
on neariiig his residence we observed a round log, eight-cor- 
nered, low-roofed construction, which proved to have only a 
dirt floor, and which the writer supposed to be a sheep house, 
having seen some built after that style. Here we were met 
and most cordially and kindly received by the occupant, 
whom the writer at the time took to be the roughest and 
toughest looking specimen of humanity he had ever met: 
bare-headed, bare-footed, sun burnt, hair unkempt, and 
standing out in almost every direction, his coarse Lowell 
pants frazzled at the bottom, with one suspender only across 
his shoulders, which seemed to have been sworn in to do its 
best; but a kinder welcome and more hospitable treatment 
we could not have received; it came with a free good will. 
Mr. Dooey's wife being dead, himself and his two very small 
girls soon prepared dinner for us, and we ate, that is Mr. 
Jordan did, and seemed to relish and enjoy the creature 
comforts; but the writer's stomach at the time seemed to be 
a little off its base, and he touched Ughtly. Yet it was said 
that this old pioneer's stock of all kind numbered thousands, 
and some ready cash in his coffers, and was respected by 
his few neighbors. I afterwards on two occasions saw this 
old Texan pass Jordan's Sahne with almost a caravan of fine 
ox teams, hauling goods and groceries from Shreveport: 
still bare-headed, bare-footed — the crack of his ox- whip 
could be heard for a mile— his brain seeming to be imper- 
vious to the scorching, burning rays of the sun, and his feet 
likewise to the "sand-briars " 

This writer does not by any means mention this old 
reminiscence in a disparaging way, or to reflect in anywise 
upon Mr. Dooey, who, I suppose, was an extreme type of the 



40 EARLY DAYS IN RAINS COUNTY 

tirst settlers in that section of the country; for this writer 
himself is an old Texan, and cherishes the utmost regard for 
that class of early pioneers who so cheerfully endured hard- 
ships, trials and sufferings to open up the way for the de- 
velopment and occupancy of the greatest and grandest coun- 
try on earth: 

Immediately after the officers of Van Zandt county were 
qualified, a term of the Commissioners' Court was held at 
the Saline, and provisions made for the building of the round 
log cabin, some 16 feet square, (but not honored with a fire- 
place)j and which was located about one-half mile south of 
the Saline, near Saline creek, to be used as a Clerk's office 
and courthouse. At the same time provisions were made 
for some blank record books, paper, seal, etc., which I think 
was finally procured from New Orleans. The first records 
were made on loose sheets of paper and afterwards trans- 
scribed, and a private seal used by the Clerk. It was sev- 
eral months before we were furnished with any statutory 
laws. The writer had just passed his tw^enty-first mile post, 
was inexperienced, and had no recollection at the time of 
ever having seen the inside of a law book of any kind. The 
writer, as Clerk, in the absence of any law on the subject, 
and to make things doubly sure and safe, required the first 
several parties applying for marriage license to give bond 
and security for the faithful performance of the contract. 
How it w^as that we, the officers elect, in the absence of any 
law— in our ignorance— by main strength and awkwardness, 
moved the county affairs along without committing any very 
serious blunder* still remains one of the mysteries. 

About this time on a certain morning the writer was 
passing to his office in company with his "chum," (a paddy 
who happened to be living with him at the time), and who 
was first in discovering a respectable sized alligator stretch- 
ed out in front of the office door, and remarked in his Irish 
brogue: "There seems to be a shentleman after his hcense. " 
But not believing that to be his business I required no bond. 
If such could have been his intentions, I am satisfied that 
his intended never saw him again, for after having much 



41 EARLY DAYS IN RAINS COUNTY 

sport out of him with two very severe dogs, which came off 
second best in the fight, we dispatch him. Wife and I could 
then account for our chickens being carried oft from under 
the floor of our cabin wherein we slept, for several nights 
previous, leaving an appearance in the sand as if a small og 
had been dragged along. These animals abounded in all the 
waters and water courses here in those days. On another 
occasion I happened on a very large monster of this species 
on a blue jack ridge, evidently passing from one water to 
another, and not feeling any inclination w) engage him m a 
personal combat in the absence of any fire-arms, or other 
formidable weapon, and supposing that his pass was right, 
he had my permission to pass on for further explorations. 
About this time wife made some trouble at home on the 
"soap question." There was no concentrated lye in those 
days, and to keep down further trouble this writer repaired 
to the woods, a few hundred yards distant, and burned sev- 
eral bushels of ashes from old decayed blackjack logs and 
trees, and on a certain warm morning carried them, turn by 
turn, on his shoulder in an old hamper basket. The exer^ 
cise caused free perspiation, and the ashes sifting out and 
settling on the beardless countenance of the carrier and over 
his person generally, caused him to present quite a comical 
appearance; while in this plight as he neared his cabin with 
a turn of ashes on his shoulder he was met by three 
lin» looking gentlemen, well mounted, and who proved to be 
Gov J. Pinckney Henderson, John A. Greer, at one time 
Lieutenant Governor, and Capt. Wheeler, I think of San 
Augustine county. They inquired for the Clerk, and was 
informed that he would be on hand in a short time; the apol- 
ogy for Clerk, after dumping his load of ashes, did not take 
time to shake himself, or irrigate his countenance, but re- 
paired at once to his offt( e, unlocked at once the clapboard 
door shutter and had the gentlemen seated. The Governor 
soon had his papers out, and again looked around and in- 
quired for the Clerk, and was informed, I am Clerk here , 
but said he: "Where is the Principal?" and was informed, 
"I am Principal and all-I am running the whole thing. 



42 EARLY DAYS IN RAINS COUNTY 

These gentlemen surveyed the party before them from head 
to foot for a few moments, and apologized and begged his 
pardon, having discovered that their title papers should be 
recorded in Titus county, and not in Van Zandt county. 
About one month afterwards these papers came by mail ad- 
dressed to the Clerk, and were recorded and returned. 

You see from the above that it is all a hoax about what 
used to be said that the Olerk was unable to unlock his office 
door on the occasion above alluded to, from the fact that he 
used the key that day for a clapper to the cow bell. That 
was another "feller." 

Van Zandt county beins: within the limits designated in 
colonization contract, made the 29th day of January, 1844, 
between Sam Houston, President of the Republic, and Chas. 
Penton Mercer and his associates, under the Act of Feb- 
ruary 4, 1841. Our citizens proved up and obtained their 
land certificates, 640 acres to each head of a family, and to 
each single or unmarried man 320 acres, at Jordan Saline 
on the 6th day of May, 1850, and afterwards on the 24th day 
of June following, from J. M. Crockett, Commissioner for 
said colony. Very few of these old veteran grantees are 
now left among us. If they and their heirs had judiciously 
located their certificates at that time on the abundance of 
vaqant lands, andimproved, and held on to the same, they 
w6uld all now have good homes and pleasant surroundings, 
whereas a large majority of their children can truthfully 
sing, "Not a foot of land do I now possess," in what was then 
this vait howling wilderness; but such are some of the mis- 
takes of life. Many of these certificates were actually trans- 
ferred for a cow and calf, or a Mexican pony. 

It was in the fall of this year that a footman, a stranger 
who called himself Reed, was arrested on a charge of having 
knocked down a Norwegian about six miles west of the 
Sahne, on the Shreveport and Dallas road, and reheved him 
of his pocket change; and in the examining court of fesq. 
Braughman was held to abide the decision of the Grand Jury 
therein, and being unable to give bond was taken by Peter S. 
Benton, Sheriff, to his home, three miles distant, and a chain 



43 EARLY DAYS IN EMNSCOONTY 

SheHff. boy. »> hell, them m.l.. »"•• *""' '"re Sun. 

said that he paid the fine, and that the "^^^""^^^ .^,f^^,. 
«ent o« the -ney and bou^^ht a .^^^^^^^^ ^;^ 

refieTe\re\^e ^ .rhetf aistin. .coUection th. 
he got no part of the juice to help his Uver Disease, 



Cotton Marketing in the Long Ago. 



Or 



Perhaps it might interest the boys of this generation 
(and some of the * old boys," too, for that matter), to know 
something of the ups and downs their grandsires had in get- 
ting their cotton to market, as told by Uncle Joe Jefferson of 
Van Zandt county — Rains being a part of Vaa Zandt in the 
early days. In those days Shreveport, La., Jefferson and 
Marshall, Texas, was to them what their home towns are 
to the larmers of Rains and Van Zandt now, or in other 
words they were their '4iome markets." Old settlers use 
to say that it took from 20 to 50 days to make the trip — the 
time depending on the distance to the place they went to. 
This meant, too, when they had good luck. If they broke 
down, bogged down, or lost some of their oxen the old lady 
and children were awful glad when the old man returned. 

They did not know how to mortgage cotton then, for 
they had never heard of the like; therefore they could very 
easily lay their cotton aside and wait 'till spring to seU. They 
did this for two reasons: They wanted better camping 
weather and also grass for their oxen, as corn was scarce 
and high in price— J&l to 551.50 per bushel. 

'*When grass was good we could drive aU day and bell, 
hobble and turn our teams out at night and save buying 
corn. When half a dozen or more ox teams were turned out 
at night, and every other ox with a bell on— big bells, little 
bells, coarse bells and tine bells— what music it did make! 
In imagination I can hear them over across the branch just 
now. 

One among his last trips with a long ox team is going to 
be mighty hard for Uncle Joe Jefferson to forget. It was 
just after the break of the war. Father had raised a little 
cotton each year all through the war, for he said cotton was 
going to be a big price when the war ended. 

When the boys Were all back and the cotton market 



45 EARLY DAYS IN RAINS COUNTY 

straightened out, he put it upon your Uncle Joe and an older 
brother to carry to market seven bale^ of cotton which he 
had stored away, or rather penned up, for he couldn't get it 
ginned until the war was over. 

There had been no road working done for four or live 
years, for the road hands were all off in the army, and hence 
the highways were next to impassable. But cotton at from 
20 to 30 cents per pound was some inducement to a fellow to 
go to market over the head of all opposition. We hitched our 
big stout yokes of oxen (two yoked together was called a 
yoke), to a big old wooden ox wagon, rolled on the seven 
bales of cotton and set out for Marshall. We didn't go to 
Shreveport this time, for as many can remember it was 
but a short time after the surrender 'til the T. & P. Ry. was 
completed up to Marshall. 

First day we got along pretty well, and camped just be- 
low Edom. Next morning we hadn't gone far until we came 
to a red, slick hillside, and in spite of all precautions— over 
went wagon, cotton and all. We had a big slick, muddy job 
in getting things untangled, straightened out and reloaded. 
But we did it, and went on a few miles until we came to the 
old Lollar bridge on the Neches river. The big rains had 
overflowed the bottom and the water was well nigh up to the 
bridge. The bridge itself was in a rickety condition. We 
soon decided it would never do to drive four yokes of oxen 
and a seven bale load of cotton on that bridge. What should 
we do? This: Just at the end of the bridge was a little 
mound the water hadn't covered. Onto that island we drove, 
and throwed off the cotton; then carried over the oxen— one 
yoke at a time until three yokes were safely over the old 
bridge. Then with the remaining yoke we carried over the 
empty wagon — leaving it just at the other end of the bridge. 
Then bale by bale across that long and nearly rotten bridge, 
we rolled the cotton. How the old thing did shake, espe- 
cially when we were pounding over with 500 pound weights, 
right over the current of the river. But we got all things 
over safe, the cotton back on the wagon and drove to the top 
of the hill beyond the bottom and camped. Twice we had 



46 EARLY DAYS IN RAINS COUNTY 

loaded our cotton on that day and we certainly felt like rest- 
ing, but the situation was made more gloomy by an all 
night's rain on us. 

Next day our cotton frame broke smack in two, and just 
beyond Tyler and a little distance this side of the Old Stock- 
ade. We again rolled off the cotton, borrowed tools from old 
Major Rushing, made a new frame, loaded up again and roll- 
ed on. As we passed through the town of Tyler) I believe it is 
a city now), a merchant came out and without any inquiry 
as to quality or weight of the cotton, proposed to give us 
seven hundred dollars for the seven bales. We didn't even 
stop to talk to him about it. 

As we moved on we soon began to meet parties who 
would tell us hair-raising stories about "Duncan's Creek 
bottom." "You can't cross that bottom," they'd tell us, 
"with that team and load." Joe Jefferson began to feel pretty 
blue, but his brother was late from the war, where he had 
seen many sights — and had ever been a teamster there — so 
he screwed up his courage and also gave his brother Joe a 
few turns by telling me he could "pull the old scratch off his 
roost with that team." 

Late in the evening we reached the bottom and decided 
to go through and camp on the hill beyond, or "stick up" 
trying. Right through we went without a bobble and camp- 
ed with joy and gladness on the hills beyond. Now we're 
all right, though, Alas! no good news came up the road for us. 

We began meeting fellows who'd tell us that the Sabine 
river was a mile wide and we couldn't get across at all. One 
fellow said, even if the ferryman would take us over he'd 
charge us $25. This fellow had left his wagon and was re- 
turning leading his mules. Joe Jefferson's courage sank 
below zero. If his brother's did he didn't let me know it. 
The river bottom w|is wide, but sure enough the water was 
from hill to hill. 

The ferryman didn't want his job. He first suggested 
that the wagon wheels would bog so deep into the mud that 
when they struck the boat tunnel they wouldn't make the 
rise. His next fear was that even if we gut on the boat we'd 



47 EARLY DAYS IN RAINS COUNTY 

"ground" it, meaning: that the weight of the team and load 
would bury the boat so deep in the mud that he couldn't 
move it away. After parleying awhile he agreed to risk it if 
we would. It was an old-fashioned flat boat. We got our 
team and load onto it without much trouble, but sure 
enough we "grounded" it. With all his might the ferryman 
tried to loose anchor, but the boat was there both sure and 
steadfast. My heroic brother picked up a pole which lay 
in the boat and stepped out into the water near waist deep 
and began surging, prising and heaving at the old flat until 
at last she loosed her anchorage and began to move. Fear 
always had torments and now I conjectured that about the 
main current of the river something was going to happen. 
For once I was strongly opposed to "deep water." The hill 
on the far side was at last reached, and once more we were 
on dry land. 

When the Red Sea was crossed, the army of Israel sang 
the song of deliverance; I too might have sang, bat while that 
mighty host were never to pass that way any more, Joe Jef- 
ferson well knew that his fair Canaan was 'way up in Van 
Zandt while Sabine rolled between. 

The worst is yet to come! We made it on to Marshall 
all right so far as rivers and roads were concerned, but what 
think ye? We hadn't been in town two hours 'til somebody 
stole old "Ich," my good coon dog. No joke, boys, they got 
him. How I did miss him of moon-light nights when I got 
back home. 

We stored the cotton for shipment according to our 
orders. I have forgotten the exact price it brought when 
sold, but my recollection is that it was close about $800 for 
the seven bales. Our load being light on our return, we 
made it back without serious trouble." 



Organization of Rains County and 
First Officers. 



Kains County was organized in 1870 out of territory 
taken from Wood, Hunt, Hopkins and Van Zandt Counties. 
It embraces an area of 252 square miles, and is situated upon 
the parallel of 32 degrees and 50 minutes north latitude. 
The County is bounded on the north by Hopkins and Hunt 
Counties, on the east by Wood, on the west by Hunt, and on 
the south by Van Zandt. The County site was located at 
Emory, known as Springville before the County was organ- 
ized. Botli the County of Rains and the town of Emory were 
named for an early pioneer, the late venerable Judeje Emory 
Rains, who first represented the County in the State Legis- 
lature. 

The first instrument was tiled for record December 9, 
1870, and on November 9, 1879, all the County records were 
destroyed by a fire w^hich consumed the temporary court- 
house—a small wooden structure, located near where the 
present court house stands. This fact "cuts me off" from 
getting up a fuller history of the County during this impor- 
tant and eventful period. 

Among the first County Officers were: 

John D. Rains, District Cleik; Thos. M. Allred Deputy. 

P. P. (Press) Rains, Sheriff. 

E. P. Kearby, County Judge. 

H. W. Martin, County Attorney. 

James Gary. County Treasurer. 

Levi Simpson, Chief Justice and County Commissioner, 
Precinct No. 1. 

There were no such offices as District Judge, County 
Judge, County Attorney or County Treasurer when the 



49 EARLY DAYS IN RAINS COUNTY 

County was organized. They were created by the New Con- 
stitution adopted by the people of Texas in 1876. Until that 
time the District Clerk was also County Clerk, and the office 
of Justice of the Peace at the County site nearly corres- 
ponded with that of County Judge at the present time. 

Among the pioneer heroes who braved savage opposition 
by settling in Rains County "with the Bible in one hand and 
the rifle in the other" were Elijah ToUett, Wm. Leggett, 
Johnathan MaMahan. J. W. Hooker, John Montgoniery, 
Rev Ambrose Fitzgerald, Isaac C. Alexander, Mabry Wafer, 
Isham Lynch, Micajah Reeder, Gilbert Yarborough, Jesse 
Montgomery, Sr., Levi Simpson, O. S. Porbis, James Gary, 
Pary Taylor, Elijah Magee, Jas. H. Flowers, Thos. Bryant, 

and many others. , 

Rains County has gradually Increased in wealthand popula- 
tion Comprising an area of 252 square miles, with a diversity 
of soil capable of producing everything necessary to sustain 
life and please the taste of those who settled in her borders, 
her people have by economy and industry, acquired for 
themselves happy and comfortable homes, and their thrift 
induced the immigrant to push into their midst. 

In 1910 her population was 6,797. Since then-in the 
last seven years-it has been estimated that her population 
has increased 75 per cent, showing clearly that when the 
next census is taken in 1920, her population will be more 
than doubled. This rapid increase of population is attrib- 
uted to the enterprise of her citizens, the rapid development 
of the rich agricultural lands in the County, as well as the 
superior educational faciUties which her citizens have fos- 
tered and carefully guarded. 

The taxable property of Rains County for the year 1917 
amounts to $3,265,021. Her people produce about 7,0W 
bales of cotton annually- which, at the present price of 25 to 
30 cents per pound, will give to each man, woman and child 
within her borders, about $60. While cotton is the leading 
staple to bring this vast amount of money into general cir- 
culation, it is by no means the only source of wealth here. 
Corn, potatoes, peas, sugar cane, wheat, oats, rye, barley, 



50 EARLY DAYS IN RAINS COUNTY 

and vegetables of many kinds and varieties are produced in 
the greatest abundance. As a fruit g^rov^ing region, it is 
one of the finest in the State, and her people have for some 
years past received a considerable revenue from this indus- 
try. The time vrill come, if our people take advantage of 
their opportunities and spray their orchards, when the rev- 
enue from fruit culture in Rains County, will very near, if 
not equal the cotton crop. Only a willing hand and econom- 
ical management of one's affairs is needed to set a man up in 
a business that will give him an annual income sufficient to 
supply all the necessaries of life, and to place all the luxuries 
in reach, to be plucked and gathered and enjoyed by an 
enterprising, thriving and contented people. 



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